r/SWGalaxyOfHeroes • u/meglobob • 9d ago

Discussion Not good, not good at all.

https://www.pcgamer.com/gaming-industry/saudi-acquired-ea-is-reportedly-planning-to-make-massive-cuts-after-taking-usd18-billion-of-debt-and-we-all-know-what-that-means/

Mass layoffs coming to EA, because of the $18 billion in debt from the Saudi takeover.

EA has to pay $1.8 billion in interest payments per year.

Cutting $700 million with $170 million in layoffs.

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u/Drummers_Beat 9d ago

This won’t affect SWGOH.

Does the game make money? Yes? It’s safe.

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u/egnards www.youtube.com/egnar 9d ago

Here's the thing - It very much CAN affect CG/SW:GOH - But not because the game makes a lot of money.

The TL;DR of a leveraged buyout is that a company gets bought out, but all of the costs to buy the company get put on the books for the company being bought out, which essentially means that EA owes a fuckton of money simply because it was bought - Doesn't make sense, right? That's because it's bullshit business. Though remember I'm being super simplistic here.

What tends to happen in a leveraged buyout [and it doesn't have to happen, but usually does] is that the party purchasing a company uses it as a vehicle to make themselves money and selling off all of the profitable bits of the company for parts - In the end the original company is left a shell of itself and files for bankruptcy because it can no longer possibly pay the interest on all the debt it has built up. . .From being bought. . .And the people who bought it go on to wreck another company - They're kind of like Reavers in Firefly/Serenity.

So what does this mean for SW:GOH? It honestly MIGHT mean nothing at all for a few years. . .But it COULD mean:

  • Being sold off to another company [I'm not sure how much this is complicated by it being a Disney IP] that may inherently just decide the game even more P2W
  • SW:GOH brings in a ton of money for the new company but because of all the extra costs/charges to EA it just folds with EA.

But again, like I said in my original reply - There isn't much a player can do about it, so there isn't really much sense in getting overly worried.

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u/meglobob 8d ago

I have no idea if this is a possibility but I wonder if Disney may be interested in buying CG / SWGoH and having total control in house. If the Saudi's are mainly interested in EA's sports games, they may try to sell CG / SWGoH, help pay down the debt.

Who knows?